Practical Techniques for the Storage, Transportation, and Preservation of Fruits, Vegetables, and Gourds

Author: Ma Yansong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: China has become a major producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. Vegetable production amounts to 440 million tons, and fruit production exceeds 60 million tons, surpassing the total grain output when combined. In terms of the domestic market circulation value of fruit and vegetable products, they also lead far ahead of grains. It can be said that the horticultural industry, whether in terms of output or value, is a major industry in China's planting sector. Experts both domestically and internationally generally agree that horticultural products, from planting to harvesting, and from pre-harvest to post-harvest packaging, transportation, storage, and processing, require a significant amount of manual labor, making it a labor-intensive industry. In developed countries, their prices are generally higher than those of grains, sometimes even several times higher. Fruits, vegetables, and other horticultural products are the most export-potential agricultural products in China after its entry into the WTO. For a long time, China's fruit and vegetable preservation and processing industries have lagged behind. Fruits and vegetables were largely subject to "harvest and sell in the same season" and "produce and sell locally," with issues like "not enough storage capacity" and "difficulty in transportation" becoming major reasons for the challenges of selling fruits and vegetables. Some visionary fruit and vegetable farmers made full use of local natural advantages and the strengths of fruit and vegetable products, vigorously developing fruit and vegetable storage and transportation preservation. They acted early and effectively, increasing substantial income while boosting the local fruit and vegetable industry. For example, Guo Jingxia in Beining City, Liaoning Province, pioneered the construction of the city's first micro cold storage in 1995. That year, he stored Jufeng grapes in the newly built storage, recovering the initial investment of 40,000 yuan and making an additional profit of over 20,000 yuan. This sparked widespread attention, leading to the establishment of a micro cold storage street in Changxing Store Town, which consisted of over 500 cold storage units, forming a renowned winter storage grape wholesale market. As a result, the grape planting area in the city expanded from over 2,000 hectares to 10,000 hectares, with winter storage capacity reaching 100,000 tons. Fruit farmers happily said, "I planted a crop of grapes, and after winter storage, it's like harvesting another crop in terms of income."
China has a vast territory and diverse climates, with a rich variety of fruit and vegetable products. To promote the reduction of losses and preservation and value-added of farmers' fruit and vegetable products, increase income, and facilitate the entry of China's fruit and vegetable products into domestic and international markets, the National Agricultural Product Preservation Engineering Technology Research Center leveraged its advantage of concentrating high-tech talents. It organized six researchers and seven associate researchers with practical experience, and invited four "Center" consultants and renowned domestic fruit and vegetable preservation experts to compile the "Practical Technology Series on Fruit and Vegetable Storage and Transportation Preservation."
Considering the differences in fruit and vegetable varieties and product advantages across regions, the general part of this series includes two sub-series: "Construction, Use, and Maintenance of Fruit and Vegetable Storage Preservation Facilities" and "Technology for Preventing Storage and Transportation Diseases of Fruits and Vegetables." The fruit-specific part includes four sub-series on apples, pears, hawthorns, peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, persimmons, walnuts, and chestnuts, as well as fresh jujubes. The kiwifruit and grape sub-series are also included. The vegetable-specific part covers onion and garlic varieties, root and tuber vegetables, melon and gourd vegetables, and fruit and bean vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and green beans, totaling four sub-series.
This series consists of a total of 12 sub-series. Due to the heavy research and development tasks of some scientific researchers, as well as the need to further enrich domestic and international new technologies and experiences, this series will be published in phases. We kindly ask readers for their understanding. This series is primarily aimed at storage and transportation workers in production lines, owners of medium and large-scale cold storages, and grassroots technical personnel. It emphasizes practicality and is highly operational.
China's agricultural product preservation industry is still a weak industry, but precisely because it is a weak industry, it also holds the greatest potential for development and the highest profit potential. Objectively speaking, China's research and development in fruit and vegetable preservation are relatively weak, and many of the content in this book still needs to be supplemented and improved. It is inevitable that some aspects are overlooked, and we welcome criticism and corrections from relevant experts and practitioners in production.
We sincerely hope that this series can serve as a bridge between scientists and readers, establishing a network for technological development. We aim to make every reader a friend of the scientific researchers at the National Agricultural Product Preservation Engineering Technology Research Center. Together, let us contribute our part to revitalizing agriculture and promoting income growth for farmers.
This book is divided into six chapters, introducing basic knowledge of vegetable storage and transportation preservation, the facility conditions for vegetable storage and transportation preservation, the transportation and circulation preservation of vegetables, the technology for preserving melon and gourd vegetables, the technology for preserving fruit and vegetable vegetables, and the technology for preserving leafy vegetable vegetables.